2018 Off-season. Let's spend some money! - darkwolf80's Blog

darkwolf80's Blog

2018 Off-season. Let's spend some money!

Posted on February 13, 2014 at 03:37 PM.

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This offseason was going to be a very busy one as it was my first chance to really shape the team as I wanted.

First tasks were contract options and restricted agent offers.
Picked up options:
R. Francis 2.29M
D. Francis 4.43M
R. Thompson 1.97M
B. Augustin 1.92M
S. Munoz 2.72M
D. Blevins 1.77M

Restricted FA:
Declined to offer T. Thompkins 3.20M
Offered N. Houston 984K

Next was the draft. I had the 25th pick from the trade with the Clippers at the trade deadline last year. There were some targets higher in the draft that I was looking at, but didn't think we would be able to swing any deals. Boy was I wrong.

I sat pat until my pick was called. Then I went shopping. Knowing I had a lot of free cap space I was willing to part with Terrence Ross if it helped me land someone I could see sticking around for the future. The Pistons and I were becoming very good trade partners, as I was able to trade Ross and the 25th pick for their number two pick Russell Lawson. He was the one guy I really had my eye on as a complement to Ray Ray. I figured I could fill the starting SG with FA money. I also picked up two players at the beginning of the second round to bolster the end of my bench: Chris Sampay and Luca Tomoni. I made a trade to get the extra second round pick and clear a little more cap space.

When it came to FA I was able to hit it very big. Thompkins decided to take my offer of 2yr/4.14M. I liked the rebounding he provided at the PF, and spot minutes he could provide at C. Then things got really crazy. I made max offers to two restricted free agents that I didn't think their teams would let go. So I couldn't believe when they both signed with me and their original teams passed. Julius Randle was a star at PF and immediately upgraded that position and gave me a banger to put next to Ray Ray for the next four years with a 4yr/74.40M deal. The other player was one I knew very well. And it was extra special that I was able to get him as it stuck it to the Bobcats. Jabari Parker signed on the dotted line also for 4yr/74.40M. I was completely surprised they would have let him go. But I know they were going to have to make some hard decisions with all those young guys I had built the team around having deals expire pretty close to each other. With those two guys and Thompkins I went from 39M to only 2.5M left in cap space. But I now had three stars under 24 to lead the Mavs back to prominence. Cuban was very happy as well as he had missed out on some top level free agents in years before. He was always preaching cap flexibility to use at the right time. And this ended up being the right time to strike. We also had Nick Houston accept his qualifying offer of 1yr/984K. In the process of these moves we did have to release Jonah Bolden and Maurice McCormick. We also moved D. Francis back to his original SG spot. The final move was to release Nick Houston and sign Tyshawn Taylor to a one year deal for the backup PG spot.

Dallas Mavericks Depth Chart - 2018-19
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
PG	Shane Larkin	Tyshawn Taylor	Luca Tomoni
SG	Dorian Francis	Rusell Lawson	Sergio Munoz
SF	Jabari Parker	Byron Augustin
PF	Julius Randle	Raheem Thompson	Trey Thompkins	Fabijan Novoselec
C	Ray Ray Francis	Brendan Wright	Chris Sampay

Other major FA signings throughout the league:
Kings - Cousins for 4yr/82.75M
Clippers - Paul for 3yr/74.96M
Raptors - Smart 3yr/32.13M
Bucks - Harden 4yr/88.93M
Blazers - Sanders 4yr/53.73M
Bulls - Stephenson 4yr/45.20M

I lost the full draft recap, but here are the top 12 picks.

NBA Draft 2018- Round 1 Recap
Pick	Team	Player	Pos	Ht	Wt
1	Los Angeles Lakers	J'Vonte Creecy	PG
2	Detroit Piston (rights to Mavs)	Russell Lawson	SG
3	Brooklyn Nets	Nevil Burns	SG
4	Milkwaukee Bucks	Vatily Andropov	C
5	Denver Nuggets	Zachary Grinnage	PG
6	Minnesota Timberwolves	Justin Tryon	SF
7	New York Knicks	Shawn Carter	SF
8	Miami Heat	Metrick McGee	SG
9	Washington Wizards	Tyrese Dawson	C
10	Boston Celtics	Antonio Cameron	PG
11	Memphis Grizzlies	DJ McCorvey	SF
12	Phoenix Suns	Wydell Jeter	SG

Draft Day Trades:
Bulls - 1st Rd #13 and 2019 2nd Rd for
Cavs - Tristan Thompson

Pacers - 1st Rd #24 and Ian Mahinmi for
76ers - Rico Pasqual and 2nd Rd #23

Detroit - Russell Lawson for
Mavericks - 1st Rd #25 and Terrence Ross

Bulls - Jonah Bolden and 2nd Rd #3 for
Mavs - Juvonte Reddic and Dashawn Blevins